Focus On CSIR’s Building & Road Research Institute

By Enimil Ashon

Did you know:

• that the Tema township, the first deliberately planned enclave in West Africa, was designed and built by Ghanaians, led by engineers and building technologists from the Housing and Planning Departments of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology?
  
• that Asawase and Ahinsan estates in Kumasi were put up by Ghanaians from the same department?
  
• that the Achimota Overpass in Accra, constructed in the 1970s, was the work of Ghanaian engineers?
  
• that the Buipe and Yapei bridges in the North were constructed in the 1960s by Ghanaians?
  
• that the by-passes at Nsawam, Nkawkaw and Kyebi were the result of road-use research by the Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI), in collaboration with the National Road Safety Commission?

Today, 50 years down the line, when knowledge abounds and the know-how by our scientists has increased, Ghanaian engineers and building technologists sit with their chin in the palm, looking on as Brazilians are building Kejetia in Kumasi, and the Kwame Nkrumah Overpass in Accra.

What happened? With advances in technological development, Ghanaian scientists and researchers are today ten times more knowledgeable than their predecessors of the 1960s. Yet – and your guess is as good as mine – official lack of confidence in African solutions; incurable ignorance, which manifests in highly educated Ghanaians, business executives and public servants looking down on and actually rejecting local building technologies. This ignorance has percolated down to the ordinary Ghanaian, so much that even in our communities in the villages of Ghana today, people who build with imported cement and other materials are more respected.

Indeed, the story is told of an attempt by the Building and Road Research Institute to introduce low-cost housing from local materials – such as burnt bricks, clay roofing tiles, bamboo and compressed earth blocks – for workers in one of Ghana’s regional capitals. The story is that a top government official openly campaigned against the project, describing the houses as “Atakwame houses”, not worthy to be occupied by city dwellers. He moved heaven and earth to have the project stopped. No amount of conscientization could bring this official to understand that the decades-old halls of residence of the University of Ghana, the ancient cathedrals of Europe, especially the UK, were all from burnt bricks!

This show of ignorance, combined with official lack of confidence in the scientist, explains why the Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is not on the lips of the average Ghanaian.

As a pure Arts person who once poured scorn on efforts of African scientists and blamed them for producing research “whose only destination is the academic shelf – there, forever, to gather dust”, I can today assert that if Ghana perishes, it will not be for lack of knowledge; at least, not on the part of our scientific community.

I do so from the perspective of a cynic who has been “born again” after tasting the CSIR. I have gone through technologies developed out of the scientific research by the various institutes, and I can say that if Ghana perishes tomorrow, it will not be because someone, or a group of concerned Ghanaians, trained in the sciences with the tax-payer’s money, failed to place their knowledge at the service of the nation.

Take the Building and Road Research Institute. With a highly qualified work force that includes foundation, civil, structural, geotechnical, ceramic, chemical, transportation and highway engineers, as well as chemists, planners, architects, surveyors and information technologists, this scientific centre of excellence is mandated to “promote the conduct of demand-driven and problem-based research and provide training and technology transfer that links effectively to the socio-economic development of the country particularly the building, road and transport industry”.

Tasked to develop innovative designs to ensure cost-effectiveness in shelter construction, evaluation of local clay deposits for possible use in construction, conduct studies on termite and fungal attack on timber structures and other building materials, the BRRI is an institute on a mission. This mission it is pursuing with a zeal equaled only by that of religious zealots out to win converts.

Has it lived up to the name? I dare say it has.

Ever heard of Pozzolana Cement? It is a wholly Ghanaian product invented by the BRRI. The “Clay Pozzolana” replaces up to 40 per cent of imported Ordinary Portland Cement to produce pozzolana cement for both concrete and general cement. The cost of pozzolana cement per 50 kilogramme-bag is about 20 per cent cheaper than a bag of Portland Cement; Pozzolona cement reduces cracking (indeed, NO CRACKS) and is more resistant to rain penetration; with Pozzolana, there is an icreased resistance against chemical attacks, notably sulphates and chlorides.

Concrete works, cement blocks, mortar for blockwork, culverts, drains and pavement blocks made from  Pozzolana cement have been scientifically proven (QED) to be superior in all ways than all of the above produced with Portland cement. The cost saving of BRRI projects was demonstrated when it undertook the construction of 650 units of houses at Ashongman, Accra. By the time it handed over the houses, there had been a saving of 30 per cent.

Yet, how many Ghanaian real estate developers and government institutions – who know about the product – will opt for it, and how many ordinary Ghanaians who want to build their mansions or pension houses ever think of Pozzolana?

As I write, there is a government policy that states that by close of 2015, 60 per cent of public buildings should be put up with local material     made in Ghana building products. This law is more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Why? Because the very government official who has to promote it or ensure compliance with the law will himself or herself prefer imported materials! It’s a disease which neither the BRRI, alone or even with the parent CSIR can do anything about, except keep shouting just in case someone listens and acts

Yet every government official is aware that when the fence walls of the Aboadze Thermal Plant in the Western Region were collapsing as a result of acids and salts eating away the sandcrete block wall, it was BRRI that went to the rescue, using salt-resistant burnt bricks and Pozzolana lime paste

The shouting has, in the past, proved useful. One of the chief advocates for made-in-here building materials has been Madam Sherry Aryeetey. The message got to her in good time – when she was Minister for Environment, Science Technology and Innovation.

If, dear reader, your house happens to be in a termite infested area, you have a fair idea how bothersome that can be. Landlords will do anything to get rid of termites. If you did not know before, I can assure you that you have no problem after reading this article. Just call the BRRI. The institute has developed chemicals from local plants that treat termite infestation. Beneficiaries of the technology include the GETFund hostels at the University of Development Studies in Tamale, Kumasi, Sunyani and Tamale; SSNIT hostels at Legon, KNUST and UEW and government residential property at Roman Ridge.

The Institute has a Materials Development Laboratory with test kilns, laboratory ovens and equipment for chemical and physical tests of building materials. Other facilities include pilot plant facilities for burnt brick and lime production, concrete testing facilities, and a tile press. The Geotechnical Engineering Division has laboratory equipment for soil classification tests, soil compaction, soil strength tests and rock tests. The Structures Division has miscellaneous equipment, including an Avery Compression Test machine.  The Institute enjoys a world-class reputation for research. Its track record makes it easily the consultant of choice in the built and road safety areas